What does Islamic intellectual market look like today?
JOHN L. ESPOSITO, a professor at Georgetown University in the United States, is a renowned scholar on Islam. Over the past four decades, his presentations of Islam and the Muslim world have created an enormous audience among scholars, ordinary readers and policy-makers.
Different from the classical Orientalism school of Islamic scholarship, Esposito presents Islam and the Muslim world in a way that displays his deep engaging relationship with the subject matter of his scholarship.
Moreover, his attempt to present Islam and its socio-political ideology as compatible with the modern state system secures him a neutral position in academia.
An exclusive afternoon with such a global intellectual figure in Kuala Lumpur on April 22 was a rare opportunity for me and five colleagues to exchange views on matters of common interest.
We began our conversation with the question: what does the Islamic intellectual “market” look like today?
We live in a world, Esposito said, which is different from that of even a generation earlier. The differences lie in a number of points:
ONE, the number of scholarly and popular works on Islam available in the market is huge and ever increasing due to the multiplicity of publication avenues;
TWO, readership in general, especially of printed books, has declined, giving rise to a tendency of “window shopping” (not his term) in academic readings; and,
THREE, publishing companies are reluctant to publish thick manuscripts that are heavy in content, traditional in style and costly in price.
Unsold publications are a lossmaking business that no publishing companies are willing to undertake. Then, how to fit the Islamic intellectual market into this commercial market arena?
The answer is easy, says Esposito: we have to streamline the publications with the trend of the commercial market. This can be done in a number of ways:
FIRST, we have to define our audience — who do we expect to be the readers of our works.
It is always better to target the larger crowd of the common people so that the knowledge produced gets a wider circulation;
SECOND, the content and presentation have to be simple enough so that they can answer questions and general ignorance and misconceptions about Islam.
It is better to write a book in simple language addressing popular concerns than making it intellectually heavy, keeping it limited to a narrow scholarly community; and,
THIRD, books in similar contents and ideas are in abundance; therefore, the titles must be catchy so that they attract readers’ attention.
This has a commercial aspect, too, which the publishing houses are greatly concerned with; and,
FOURTH, publishers are not keen on publishing big tomes.
Instead of producing big volumes or lengthy manuscripts, it is always better to present the ideas in shorter forms.
This is because readers look for quick information. This is a short-read generation.
Associate professor, Department of Political Science, International Islamic University Malaysia